Network security systems are often employed to protect networks from, for example, misuse, unauthorized modification, malicious software, and/or denial-of-service (DOS) attacks (e.g., distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks). For example, network security devices and applications can be deployed in network nodes that receive and forward network traffic to prevent or mitigate network security attacks by identifying and dropping network packets associated with an attack.
However, certain network nodes receive high levels of network traffic, and many network nodes may not have the processing capabilities to perform even a cursory analysis of each and every network packet that passes through the node to determine whether the network packet could constitute a threat without causing degraded performance of the node. Additionally, certain network nodes may perform other functions in addition to forwarding network traffic, such as thoroughly analyzing network packets, monitoring, recording, and reporting statistics associated with network traffic, creating and utilizing routing tables, and other functions. In such network nodes, the processing resources used to perform even a cursory analysis of each and every network packet may hinder or even prevent a network node from performing other functions such as these.
Therefore, systems, methods, and computer-readable media are desirable that can more efficiently provide network security on network nodes.